Hours & Dollars: Never Trade Hours For Dollars

From the time you are old enough to understand about earning money you are conditioned about how to achieve that goal. You are to work and give your hours to a business in exchange for a paycheck. This works if your goal in life is to make enough money to live on and continue to live from payday to payday. Those who have acquired wealth know that it should be done differently. Rather than spend that time working and exchanging hours for dollars evenly, your goal should be greater. You should strive to reach a point where you are working less and earning more. This is how people become rich.

The first thing you should realize is that your ultimate goal is money. Your goal is not to work excessive hours, but to acquire wealth. When you set that as your goal then your focus will change. Yes, in the beginning you will need to work a bit more. However, that should never be the goal you set out to achieve. Once you have established that acquiring wealth is what you are aiming for, you can focus your energy on how to do that. What may surprise you is that it does not necessarily entail more work.

Look at those who have become rich and note what they have in common. They began with a good idea, they worked to see that idea become profitable and then they were able to sit back while the money continued to come in. This is the key to becoming rich. You need to focus on what ideas you have that could produce a steady stream of income. However, you must know the difference in types of income and which type is what you want.

Your goal is a passive income stream. Passive income is that which continues to come in regardless of how much or little work you put in. These income streams do not build themselves. They start with an idea and then you have to put some effort into making it profitable. Once you have achieved this, you can sit back and enjoy your day while your income continues to build. If your goal is to become rich, this is the method that will get you there. Trading your time for money will only ensure that you survive until the next payday. It will only provide you the means to continue trading your time for money.

Rich people know that work is not the secret to success. Knowing what to do and doing it well will earn you far more than hours of labor. That does not mean that you will never work. Even the wealthiest people in the world have put in some time working. They simply know how to work it out so that the work pays off for many years and they can then simply earn their income. If you find the right idea and product, then you can easily get your system started and find yourself among the rich that you long to be.

13 Comments

Ksingh - Nobleinfosys

I somewhat agree, not fully however. I agree that those who are successful acknowledge that it is important to do the right thing at the right time. And I fully understand the importance of passive income streams. However, I haven’t come across many who admit that there is any work around hard work at least initially. In my experience, it is certainly possible to make millions online, however not if you are not willing to put in a couple of years of hard work first.

Affiliate Manager

You definitely have to put in the time first. Once you figure out what you’re doing you should be able to outsource some of the work, which will lower the amount of time you have to spend on petty things. Then, you can scale easier :)

David

I have had a terrible time with most of the outsources I attempted to use. I think I have had one really good self -directed guy working before. All the rest have needed varying degrees of attention that ends up eating the time you save by hiring someone else to do the work.

I think, if it is done right, outsourcing can be helpful. I also think that it is not so easy to find the right people and that can actually end up costing you time – which could be more valuable than the money you might gain.

Joseph

You actually have a point here. Sometimes outsourcing can be ridiculous, dirty and unhelpful, although it heavily matters on how clever one handles and manages it.

Thanks.

Joseph

I do agree with you that it’s possible to make millions online and this doesn’t actually come with putting in a lot of dedication and hard work. But as Steven argues on this article, this should not be forever (that is working hard) but should be done smart so as to reach a point where the dedication and time you have invested certainly works for you.

David

I think the idea is to build multiple revenue streams. Each one is like an engine. It may take a little time to get it going, but once you are there it will run by itself (ok, it will require maintenance from time to time).

In a sense the idea is to become the knowledgeable mechanic who builds and fixes his own revenue streams.

On the other hand, we never should lose site of our humanity and concern for others – otherwise, one would become very lonely and unhappy without other people in his life.

Affiliate Manager

Absolutely. Multiple streams of revenue is key. Even VERY successful people do this. One of the guys that founded Twitter opened a new income stream as soon as Twitter was stable and now is banking off of Square.

David

that’s a great point Luke. I think one problem for many people is getting that first income stream stable enough that you have both the time freedom and the money to fund your next project.

Once you get to a good place, it often requires effort to maintain it all.

The people who own Central Banks have the easiest time in this regard. :) Hint to anyone interested in how the financial system is skewed in favor of some and against others…

Joseph

Yes indeed, multiple revenue streams can take you from who you are to whoever you dream to be. It all matters with idea and how smart you build it and turn it into a money making machine.

Affiliate Manager

“Once you have established that acquiring wealth is what you are aiming for, you can focus your energy on how to do that. What may surprise you is that it does not necessarily entail more work.”

The best thing you can do for yourself once you have established a successful stream of income is to outsource the little things that make that source of traffic work. This will work for most projects. It’s how companies are built and the same thing can be applied for affiliate marketing or just making money online in general. You may have to spend time managing your new assistants, but it should not amount (in time) to the amount of time you would actually have to do to complete the task.

David

Yes, that’s exactly right. you have to measure the time you spend on / with your outsources versus the benefits they are giving you.

If your time is truly (not an inflated estimate) worth 100s per hour, it might not be worth it to spend that time training / managing someone – particularly a high maintenance worker – and there are some out there!

Great Work dude !! A single day counts for a blogger who needs to make money initially

Joseph

I always have a dream to be rubbing shoulders with millionaires. Not really, but I am always thinking on how to make millions (and actually inspire many to dream of rubbing shoulders with me) and this article makes me think even more smart. It’s a killer articles.